Bloops: Which Cubs Game Did Ferris Bueller Attend?
Posted by Neil Paine on February 8, 2011
After poring over details from the film and our team schedules, Wezen-Ball's Larry Granillo has the answer:
Baseball Prospectus | Wezen-Ball: Ferris Bueller's Day Off at Wrigley Field
(Hat tip to David Brown & Big-League Stew.)
February 8th, 2011 at 2:12 pm
Here's an alternate take/response from SB Nation Chicago:
http://chicago.sbnation.com/chicago-cubs/2011/2/8/1982246/ferris-bueller-cubs-game-wrigley-field
February 8th, 2011 at 4:46 pm
June 5th, 1985 vs the Braves.
February 8th, 2011 at 5:03 pm
That was definitely the game the movie showed on TV at the pizza shop, but like the Al Yellon article stated, Ferris was probably not at that particular game. Check out the video after he sits down from catching the fair ball, the upper deck of Wrigley is pretty much completely empty. Attendance for June 5, 1985 was more than 25 thousand. They probably just used extras during an off day later in the Cubs season. Great article though.
February 8th, 2011 at 5:47 pm
I don't have time to look through all this, but I see this story has been posted on Yahoo!News, so I suggest some investigative follow-ups if it hasn't already been floated.
What game was being played during the live version of ER?
What game(s) do we see being played in the Jim Morris story, "The Rookie"?
What game(s) do we see in the detective flick, "V. I. Warshawski," as Kathleen Turner watches from her apartment across Sheffield Avnue?
What apartment did she live in?
How did her rent payments compare to the rooftop seat tickets?
Not that it's relevant, I just wondered if I could afford either any more. . . .
February 8th, 2011 at 7:09 pm
So if the game was on June 5th, when was the parade?
February 8th, 2011 at 7:27 pm
This reminds me of that guy who was able to prove his innocence in a murder case because he was at a Yankee game that just happened to be filmed for an episode of 'Curb Your Enthusiasm.'
February 8th, 2011 at 7:45 pm
October 14, 2003.
February 8th, 2011 at 8:10 pm
Matthew Broderick looks like Wally Joyner.
February 8th, 2011 at 8:31 pm
Oh, come on, this isn't hard. Just contact the insurer of Cameron's dad's car and ask for the date of loss.
February 8th, 2011 at 8:57 pm
@6 Masternachos
Actually it was a Dodgers game and is an extremely amazing story as it kept an innocent man out of jail.
February 8th, 2011 at 11:34 pm
Random notes on the game the Bueller scene was actually filmed at (http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/CHN/CHN198509240.shtml):
1. The Expos beat the Cubs, 17-15. It was the only game in the majors that year in which both teams scored 15+ runs. It was the only such game between 1979 and 1996. The last such game was the famous "Phillies 23, Cubs 22" affair on 5/17/79 (both SPs knocked out after 1/3 IP; http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/CHN/CHN197905170.shtml).
2. In 6 seasons since moving to Washington, the club has never scored more than 15 runs in a game.
3. Andre Dawson of the Expos, at the tail end of an off year, had 3 HRs and 8 RBI, both career highs. He hit a pair of 3-run HRs in the 12-run 5th inning. It was his 4th straight game with a HR, also a career high. Through Sept. 20, Dawson had 15 HRs and 71 RBI, but in his last 10 starts he had 8 HRs and 20 RBI.
4. Sal Butera (Drew's dad) also homered and had a career-high 4 RBI, 1/3 of his season total and 1/19 of his career total.
5. The Cubs scored 12 runs over the last 3 innings, including 4 with 2 down in the bottom of the 9th; with the tying run at bat, Jeff Reardon came on and retired Steve Lake (hitting .149) for the last out. Lake was in the game because the Cubs pulled half their lineup after the 6th, when they trailed 15-3.
6. The official attendance for the Tuesday afternoon game was 6,947.
P.S. Elsewhere on this date ... In Philadelphia, Sid Fernandez pitched a CG 2-hitter that featured only one ground-ball out. El Sid fanned 9 and got 16 fly balls, one of which became a DP ... Down in Texas, "the other" Matt Williams teamed up on a shutout with rookie pitcher Rich Surhoff (B.J.'s older brother and the first of the pair to reach the majors, though it would be his only year there) ... In Cincinnati, rookie Tom Browning beat Pascual Perez; Browning would finish 20-9 (and lose the ROY vote to Vince Coleman), while Perez wound up 1-13. Pete Rose (age 44), two weeks past his record-breaking hit, went 1 for 3 with 2 walks; he finished the year with a .395 OBP in 500 PAs, ranking 4th in the NL ... In Anaheim, 40-year-old Tom Seaver won his 14th for the White Sox, as 37-year-old Carlton Fisk hit his 36th HR; Reggie Jackson (age 39) struck out in all 4 trips, one of his 9 career Golden Sombreros. (Seaver fanned Reggie 13 times in 37 career chances, but ReJax did get 3 HRs.) ... In the Bronx, 46-year-old Phil Niekro fell to 15-12 ... In the Kingdome, Phil Bradley hit his 22nd and 23rd HRs en route to a career-high 26, after hitting none in the first 149 games and 455 PAs of his career ... In Exhibition Stadium, the first-place Blue Jays moved closer to their first division title, and Dennis Lamp improved to 11-0, setting a record for unbeaten relief work. Lamp went 4.2 IP in this game, though his average in the 11 wins was a little over 2 IP ...
(As you can see, I subscribe to the theory that there's always something interesting in the day's box scores. How many days until we get a fresh batch?)
February 8th, 2011 at 11:39 pm
@8, Dodgerdave -- Broderick & Joyner were both born in the spring of 1962.
February 8th, 2011 at 11:40 pm
Broderick & Joyner are also both left-handed. (OK, I'll stop now.)
February 8th, 2011 at 11:58 pm
@#4 Phil- LOL!!
February 9th, 2011 at 12:07 am
@#11 John- very very good:-D I was 10-11 years old, during this season, and you brought back good memories.......
btw, not to open this can of worms back up, and, I haven't looked back to do the research (sorry- time challenged!! ) but, having said that.....from what I remember, I'd bet that El Sid had to have put some incredible numbers up, WHIP, H/9, etc.....yet his W-L??? never as dominant, as his other numbers suggested he should have been.....I remember the knock on him, was always that he 'had one bad inning'. And, so he'd leave with the game tied, or close, despite being utterly dominant, his other innings. (And certainly, playing on those Mets teams, was NOT a hinderance, to him winning games.)
Saying that to say, that I guess W-L does mean "something", even in today's sabermetric enviroment.
Again, I don't have a lot of time to research this all, right now....maybe others could inform me??
February 9th, 2011 at 12:09 am
*environment sry, lol, again typing too quickly :-p
February 9th, 2011 at 9:25 am
The parade is the Von Steuben Day Parade.The parade celebrates Baron Friedrich von Steuben, who came to this country as a volunteer offering his services to General George Washington.
February 9th, 2011 at 11:22 am
Nash Bruce @15 -- I know what you mean about El Sid's modest win totals and W% in contrast with his somewhat dominant stuff. And I share the sense that he often succumbed to the big inning (though I haven't done the research, either). But I think a few other factors were in play:
1. Sid was a fly-ball pitcher, and so had a pretty high HR rate in the context of his time, and few GIDPs. And his control was mediocre. So, although his H/9 was outstanding, his ERA+ was never great; he had just two qualifying seasons with ERA+ above 115.
2. For several seasons, he was the #5 or #4 starter on the Mets, which cost him a handful of starts over the course of a season. In 1985, he led the NL in H/9 and K/9 and a 2.80 ERA, but got just 26 starts.
3. Davey Johnson was notoriously impatient with Sid, and Davey usually had a deep bullpen; often, Sid would get yanked at the first sign of trouble in the 6th inning or later.
4. Bad luck with run support: In '85, the Mets had the league's top offense, but they scored 0 to 2 runs in 10 of Sid's 26 starts; he went 0-8 with a 2.77 ERA in those 10 games. In 1990, the Mets were again tops in scoring, but scored 0-2 runs in 12 of Sid's 30 starts, accounting for 10 of his 14 losses. And in 1992, his best full season, they gave him 0-2 runs in 13 of 32 starts, and he went 2-9 in those games, despite a 2.94 ERA.
5. The Mets were not always a good team during Sid's time; they were well under .500 in 1991-93, his last 3 years there, during which he had a combined 2.81 ERA but a 20-20 record.
February 9th, 2011 at 3:55 pm
gotcha! Thanks.
February 9th, 2011 at 4:58 pm
What was the Astros home game that was delayed by the "Bad News Bears in Breaking Trainig"? 🙂
Just let the kids play!
🙂
February 10th, 2011 at 10:46 am
Very interesting article. Reminds of the time I tried to capture the batting stats of Roy Hobbs from "The Natural" using the batting scenes and newspaper articles. At the time only the VHS format was available which made things somewhat difficult and I gave up. I wonder if anyone has done this recently with the availability of DVD/Blu-Ray?